Notes On Nigeria's Elections (3)
By Reuben Abati

The National Electoral Commission again took Nigerians for a ride yesterday in the second leg of the two-part 2007 elections; this time we had the National Assembly and Presidential elections. Professor Maurice Iwu had admitted on the eve of the elections that there were discrepancies in the elections conducted on April 14, but that INEC would address the lapses and ensure that the April 21 elections were, to use his words as "remarkably successful." On election day, INEC officials appeared on television to assert that there had been a "marked improvement." Nothing of such sort happened.

It is annoying when public servants use their positions to tell lies. It is doubly annoying when they do so as confidently as these INEC officials. Yesterday INEC repeated the offence, what Nigerians would remember 24 hours later is its incompetence and the failure of its officials to learn basic lessons about logistics. The voting time was shifted from the previous schedule of 8 a.m - 3 p. m (on April 14) to 10 am - 5 p. m, obviously to allow returning officers and ad hoc INEC agents to get to the polling stations on time, and to make room for the distribution of voting materials.

Yet, INEC officials arrived late at voting centres, there was gross shortage of materials (Gombe, Bauchi, Katsina) , in Enugu, Imo, Borno, and Abia, voting started late, as late as 6 pm in Abia; in Abuja and elsewhere, INEC returning officials absconded with ballot papers (they were probably protesting the non-payment of their allowances!); in Ogun there were complaints about lack of information about the change in schedule; in Kaduna, ballot boxes were stolen; there were widespread allegations of open and unconscionable rigging across the nation. In Ekiti state for example, a reporter with MBI television who had recorded scenes of open rigging was attacked and wounded by angry party thugs, his camera was seized; his employers had to announce on air that he should abandon his assignment and consider his personal safety first! The INEC Chairman, the PDP National Secretary and President Olusegun Obasnajo have all advised critics of the electoral process to stop moralizing because there is no such thing as an imperfect election. In the case of the 2007 elections in Nigeria, however, we are no longer talking about imperfections, but a flawed and unreliable process, whose outcome can only be a prolonged season of crisis, protest about legitimacy and greater loss of confidence in the system.

Professor Iwu has advised Nigerians not to succumb to blackmail, and to be patient about logistics problems, and that the media should refrain from publishing rumours. The biggest blackmail is the mismanagement of the 2007 elections, and this brazen attempt to pass the buck. The INEC Chairman should be apologizing to Nigerians. Last week, he promised to look into the flaws that were identified. So what happened? In many states, including Lagos and Abia, elections into the National Assembly had to be cancelled and postponed till April 26, because there were discrepancies on the ballot papers; the logos of political parties were missing. Didn't INEC double-check the ballot papers after taking delivery? In Sokoto, Borno, Bauchi and other states, many of the ballot papers for the Presidential election were not numbered, and more than two-thirds were not delivered. Voting was done in the open, next to the ballot box, without the required secrecy of the ballot. The ballot box is of such a poor quality.

In an earlier press conference the INEC Chairman had given the excuse that it is difficult to distribute election materials because of the many constituencies that needed to be covered. INEC took delivery of the ballot papers in the afternoon of April 20. It is shameful that the Chairman talked about difficulty. In a better-organized country, with a functional transportation system, INEC had more than enough time to get the voting materials to all locations in less than 20 hours. In eight years, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party could have put in place a fast rail system that could be useful at a time like this, and a robust airline transportation that could be depended upon in an emergency. But it did not.

It was a bewildered nation that was further informed by the INEC Chairman that the ballot papers were not printed in the country. "The people who have the infrastructure to print 65 million ballot papers in three days helped us to do it" , he said. Nigeria cannot even print common ballot papers? Professor Iwu is wrong. The infrastructure that he talks about is available in the country. There are printing presses in Lagos, with state of the art digital technology which could have delivered the ballot papers, and whose proximity would have allowed INEC to make last minute corrections and avoid the kind of errors that was repeated yesterday which conveyed an impression of organizational absent-mindedness. But no one should be surprised. We are a nation that is sold on the culture of importation. The importation of ballot papers must have created typically Nigerian opportunities: the opportunity to award contracts, the opportunity for foreign travel by INEC officials, and opportunity for the collection of fat estacodes. The lapses that marred the 2007 elections were largely man-made, and this is one good reason why I insist that INEC should be probed.

Yesterday, there was poor turn out of voters, except perhaps in Bayelsa, Katsina and Kaduna. In most parts of the country, the same voters who had turned out en masse on April 14 for the Governorship and House of Assembly elections decided to stay at home. They had lost their enthusiasm. For hours, INEC officials waited for voters. There were no terribly long queues. To be charitable, Presidential and National Assembly elections are likely to be seen by the people as an aesthetically distant affair. The President lives in Abuja, the National Assembly members are also Abuja-based and hence usually removed from the grassroots, and although the latter are expected to remain in touch with their constituencies, they hardly do so once they are elected. Governors and state lawmakers are much closer to the people, and hence their elections command a greater sense of urgency and empathy. But valid as this point may be, it does not explain the voter apathy that was witnessed yesterday. Having seen how their votes were manipulated on April 14, voters felt no compulsion to go and vote. Why cast a vote that will not be counted? Or votes that will be manipulated?

Besides, President Obasanjo and the PDP hierarchy had made it clear long before now, that Governor Umar Musa Yar'Adua of Katsina is the ruling elite's anointed successor. Vice President Atiku Abubakar joined the ballot late in the day, and whoever wanted to support him had been told that he would not be allowed to be President. General Muhammadu Buhari, the ANPP candidate does not have enough national following. The people's apathy was an expression of a lack of confidence in the electoral process and their refusal to confer legitimacy on the PDP's selection agenda. When Musa Yar'Adua is announced as winner of the Presidential election on Monday, no one will be surprised. President Obasanjo argues that the PDP ran a more robust campaign than any of the other 24 political parties in the Presidential race But was this about good and poor campaigns? One more reason for the low turn-out: the fear of violence.

But in the end, there wasn't much of the total implosion that we expected, save for a few isolated incidents. In Bayelsa state, a band of militants had tried to kidnap the state Governor and PDP Vice Presidential candidate, Goodluck Jonathan. The fellow once more lived up to his name. He was lucky. He escaped. If his would-be abductors had succeeded, that would have been a big blow to the electoral process indeed. In Edo state, the Governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Adams Oshiomhole who was monitoring the election with his aides was reportedly attacked in the Etsako area; two vehicles in his convoy were said to have been damaged. In Nassarawa state, nine policemen were ambushed and killed.

In Daura, Katsina state, supporters of General Muhammadu Buhari allegedly took the law into their hands and burnt down many houses; in Imo state a helicopter belonging to the Navy crashed, near the Owerri airport, killing three of the persons on board. But by far the more bizarre incident was the alleged attempt to burn down the INEC headquarters in Abuja by yet unidentified criminals. We are told that they packed gas cylinders and other incendiary materials insider a tanker, put the vehicle in motion with a stone placed on the accelerator, and this inanimate agent drove the tanker headlong towards the INEC building. It was stopped by traffic poles and tragedy was averted. The story is a bit improbable, if not contrived.

But what is certain is that Nigeria's April 2007 elections have produced too many angry Nigerians who have found fresh reason to be convinced that the Nigerian system is unjust. Nigerians looked forward in this election to an opportunity to break the jinx of civilian to civilian transition and prove that the Nigerian people can indeed manage a political process without hitches. That has not been achieved.

The people wanted an opportunity to consolidate Nigeria's democracy, through an expression of the people's will and respect for their choices. That has not happened. Nigerians wanted to show the rest of the world that their country has moved away from its military past and that a new country has since emerged: a new country that is based on the rule of law, a culture of dialogue and reasoned consensus. That too has not happened. Nigerians wanted an election in which the best men and women would win, but they have again been made to eat the humble pie owing to what the INEC calls "logistical challenges" (!).

But Nigerians are incurable optimists. Half of the population is already rationalizing the drama of the past week. They say democracy is a process. Yes, but even a process will have benchmarks of progress and achievement; in Nigeria, this is proving to be an eternal process. They also say fatalistically, that "this too shall pass away". Oh yes, like all things in nature. But when the problems we have created develop into crises, as long the country itself does not pass away, then we should be fine, just fine if we are also willing to confront the truth as it is.

Robot  # 1 | 22.04.2007 09:08

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